Peter CoatesHot

Fabien
January 12, 2015

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Peter Coates was on Born on 13th January 1938 in Goldenhill, Stoke-on-Trent, the youngest of 14 children. His father, a miner, had a keen interest in Football and regularly attended Stoke City's matches. Mr Coates joined the club as an amateur but admitted he was no good enough to become professional.

Peter began his career working fof Wimpy restaurant, and quickly rose to become regional manager before founding Stadia catering. His firm speciallised in catering for Football gournds. Stadia merged with Lindley Catering in which he evolves as the company's chair from 1968 to 2001.

In 1974, Coates founded a betting shop chain buy buying 3 shops which he rename Provincial racing. The chain quickly turned into a 49 gambling shops across the UK. The estate was sold off to Coral in 2005 for £40 Million. 4 years earlier, his daughter Denise Coates started Bet365 by developping a sports betting platform with a trading team. The business borrowed £15 million to RBS against the Family's betting shop estate. The seeling deal to Coral, allow the company to pay off its debt to the bank.

To this date, Peter Coates remains Bet365 chairman with his daughter and son as joint CEOs.

In 1989, Peter became the majority shareholder of Stoke City football club and stayed as the chairman until 1997. During that time, the club was first relegated to third division, then promoted to second division and made it to the first Division. Stoke city also moved to Britannia Stadium.

Following poor the club poor performances in 1997 and a dispute over shares which began in 1990, Peter decided to step down.

In 2005, Stoke Holding discussed the opttion of selling the club back to Mr Coates. The pan was to get the club back into the Premiership within 5 years but the financial implications proved to be more challenging than anticipated and the deal was not concluded.

In 2006, Stoke Holding started new discussions with Mr Coates and on 23rd May 2006, The coates Family completed the purchase of Stoke City for £1.7 Million trhough Bet365 subsidiary. The family also paid a further £3.3 million to pay off the clubs Icelandic debts. As a results the Golden Shares were removed. Stoke City finished second in the Championship in 2007 - 2008 following Tony Pulis reappointment at the club which gave the club automatic promotion to the Premier league.

Peter Coates is reported to be worth £840 Million.He is a keen Labour donnor reported to have donated £300,000 in the past decade including £10,000 to Mr Miliband. One large donation coincided with the relaxation of gambling legislation and the lifting of a ban on television advertising by the Labour government.